Thursday, September 10, 2009

what to buy?

I have an opportunity to do some extra work and hence make some extra money. I can't really call the money "disposable" but I do need a new computer as the 1.5 Ghz mini just lacks necessary umph to get anything useful done in a reasonable amount of time.

So, my options are as follows:

1) use my existing 15" MBP as my desktop, connect said MBP to a monitor and pick up a used Macbook Air as my "floating around the casa, take on the road" laptop.
a) monitor in question: possibly a 24" Apple LED Cinema Display. Cost $899.00
b) monitor in question 2nd place: 30" Apple Display. Cost $1799.00 (OUCH!!!)
c) cost of used Macbook Air: somewhere in the $1000 - $1200 range
d) so, minimum, $1900, maximum (I hope), $3000.00
2) keep the MBP as my laptop and get a 24" iMac. Cost: $2168.00 (base with upgraded graphics and Applecare)

In addition the 24" LED monitor has an eyesight camera built-in and that's a nice feature while the 30" monitor does not. I was hoping that new 30" monitor with a reduced price and a built-in camera would have been mentioned at the latest Apple meeting, but no. A guy can hope, can't he?

Regardless of which path I select I'm going to have to work a LOT of extra hours on extra projects, but as I've stated prior, I now have the time.

2 comments:

Tanner Lovelace said...

That's a lot of work to do!

Hey, with all that time, are you going to come by the TriLUG meeting tonight and see Tarus talk about OpenNMS (actually about starting an open source business)?

Parlez à la Main said...

Tanner - no, I could not. I wanted to see/meet Tarus again but I was on-call for work and work did indeed call, sadly. But work pays the bills so I'll not talk ill of it. :)